Yesterday’s New Bedford Standard Times featured an op-ed by Professors Davies and Harrigan that would have been appropriate several months ago. But …

Seeking Democracy in America: Fairness is Important

Posted on March 1, 2012

Unfortunately, many of our leaders in Washington seem to believe that the way to help the 99% is for the elites in government to hand out favors to the 99% and “to stimulate spending.” Thus, a misplaced faith in government micro-management continues unabated. Instead of scaling back government, and allowing the entrepreneurs to do their thing, the proposed fixes to our economy are aimed at merely expanding the failed government programs that got us into the present mess. It is so easy to state good intentions, but rarely do we see the intentions matched by actions that will gain those worthy ends.

One cause of this failing in leadership is that we elect amateurs who have never managed anything. Consequently, they fund huge programs to divert money from one group to another with little regard whether such programs will attain the desired effect. Every effort to help some group not only creates an inequity for those not included, but an inequity to all because the funds are largely misdirected or wasted. It is a management problem, not an ideological dispute. Some groups merit help but the ,means of accomplishing that usually eludes the lawmakers.

In recent years, the unfairness has grown to gigantic proportions: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer–the opposite result of what was intended. This failure is only partly due to the inexperience and incompetence of the elected officials. In some ways the unfairness is deliberately sought to curry favor with the rich and powerful. How else do you explain that recent presidents have appointed Wall Street bankers to run the Treasury Department, the Justice Department, and the Federal Reserve Banks? Why does the IRS allow tax breaks to the speculators and giant corporations? Why do they allow the disability rolls to grow faster than the jobs available? Why do they bail out the bankers who mismanage their companies and fail? It’s because they are immoral, crooked, and seek power over helping the American people.Why else have the Clinton’s amassed hundreds of millions from influence-peddling, favors granted, pardons allowed, and corrupt practices? Character counts! Elect honest straight talking people to clean up the mess in government.